Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time (II)

Jeroboam said in his heart,
“Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.
If this people goes up to offer sacrifices
in the Lord’s house at Jerusalem,
then the hearts of these people
will turn again to their master,
to Rehoboam king of Judah;
and they will kill me,
and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

So the king took counsel,
and made two calves of gold;
and he said to them,
“Long enough have you gone up to Jerusalem.
Look and see your God, Israel,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
He set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
This thing became a sin;
for the people went to worship, even going to the one in Dan.
He made temples on the high places,
and made priests from among the people
who were not of the sons of Levi.
Jeroboam ordained a feast
in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month,
like the feast that is in Judah,
and he went up to the altar in Bethel,
sacrificing to the calves that he had made:
and he placed in Bethel
the priests of the high places that he he built.

After this Jeroboam did not return from his evil way,
but again made priests of the high places
from among all the people.
Whoever wanted to, he consecrated him,
that there might be priests of the high places.
This was a sin of the house of Jeroboam,
so it was cut off and destroyed from the face of the earth.

Responsorial – Psalm 106.6-7ab, 19-20, 21-22 Resp. 4a

R. Remember me, the Lord, with the favor that you show to your people.

We have sinned with our fathers.
We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly.
Our fathers, in Egypt,
did not understand your wonders.

R. Remember me, the Lord, with the favor that you show to your people.

They made a calf in Horeb,
and worshiped a molten image.
Thus they exchanged their glory
for an image of a bull that eats grass.

R. Remember me, the Lord, with the favor that you show to your people.

They forgot God, their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt,
Wondrous works in the land of Ham,
and awesome things by the Red Sea.

R. Remember me, the Lord, with the favor that you show to your people.

Gospel – Mark 8.1-10

In those days, when there was once again
a very large crowd who had nothing to eat.
Jesus called his disciples to himself,
and said to them,
“I have compassion for the crowd,
because they have stayed with me now three days,
and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away fasting to their home,
they will faint on the way,
for some of them have come a long way.”

His disciples answered him,
“From where could one satisfy
these people with bread here in a deserted place?”
He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
They said, “Seven.”
He commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground,
and he took the seven loaves.
Having given thanks, he broke them,
and gave them to his disciples to serve,
and they served the crowd.
And they had a few small fish.
Having blessed them, he said to serve these also.

They ate, and were filled.
They took up seven baskets of broken pieces that were left over.
Those who had eaten were about four thousand.
Then he sent them away.

Immediately he entered into the boat with his disciples,
and came into the region of Dalmanutha.